Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: DrRoughneck
- can GTL bases compete price-wise with PAOs?
I thought that was the whole idea behind GTL: make something close to PAO in performance but less costly.
Well like so many things I'm sure that's a matter of interpretation. The question isn't really so much about GTL as it is about Group III base stocks, sure GTL is apparently a cleaner feedstock for severe hydrocracking but that doesn't mean the performance is dramatically better than another Group III product. That old ExxonMobil presentation about Visom development stated that the reason was due to PAO shortages, but the presentation also showed that the performance of Visom was substantially equivalent to a traditional PAO product especially when blended with a minority percentage of PAO.
Shell pretty much said the reason for the Pearl plant (which can make a variety of GTL products, not just motor oil) was to utilize the otherwise burned/vented natural gas in that location. But as was shown that turned out to be an expensive proposition and Solarent's article shows it apparently isn't without technical challenges as well. All of that is a powerful competitor to relatively inexpensive crude oil that you only have to pump out of the ground - especially when both then have to be processed in the same to make a finished motor oil..
